Propagandhi - How To Clean Everything

Artist: Propagandhi
Album: How To Clean Everything
Genre: Punk
Origin: Canada
Year: 1993

Propagandhi have become a classic of Canadian punk rock, pushing the skate-punk sound into more political territory. This early album is maybe a little less polished, but the production is solid and the lyrics have an odd juxtaposition of heavy-handed, self-righteous anarchism and not-taking-themselves-too-seriously silliness. The irony is laid on pretty thick with the oft-covered Ska Sucks (a ska song), Haillie Sellasse, Up Your Ass (a reggae song) and the painful I Want U 2 Want Me cover (the liner notes for this song say "we thought it was funny at the time" or something like that; don't worry, the rest of the songs on the album are great).

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Witch Hunt & To What End? - split

Artists: Witch Hunt & To What End?
Album: Split EP
Genre: Crust Punk
Origin: USA & Sweden respectively
Year: 2008

Witch Hunt and To What End? are both female-fronted, aggressive punk bands that came together across the Atlantic for this brilliant split. Witch Hunt is influenced a bit more by '80s British anarcho-punk, while To What End? is straight-up Swedish d-beat. I also highly recommend This Is Only The Beginning..., a compilation of Witch Hunt's early recordings.

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The Empire Shall Fall - Awaken

Artist: The Empire Shall Fall
Album: Awaken
Genre: Metalcore
Year: 2009
Origin: USA

This is a band with a frontman who's more famous for a band I couldn't care less about, Killswitch Engage. That certainly wasn't the reason I first listened to Awaken! I heard the track These Colors Bleed on a local college radio station's metal show that commonly plays this type of metalcore-type music, and I liked it a lot more than I usually do. I have to say that the breakdowns throughout the album don't do much for me, but most of the riffs are quite solid, both the clean and harsh vocals are really good, and the openly political lyrics are neat.

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Doomtree - False Hopes

Artist: Doomtree
Album: False Hopes
Genre: Hip-Hop
Year: 2007
Origin: USA

Doomtree is the hip-hop collective of P.O.S., Dessa and a bunch of other cool cats. They seriously are the best hip-hop artists in the world, to the point where I almost feel like they ruined other rappers for me. They have released a self-titled album now that is also very good (you should buy it if you like this stuff!), which they say is the music that really represents them. But I think this album might be their best collaborative work, despite being called False Hopes which is what they name a lot of releases that they think of as secondary.

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doomtree site

Fell Voices - Fell Voices

Artist: Fell Voices
Album: Fell Voices
Genre: Black Metal
Year: 2009
Origin: USA

Fell Voices is an atmospheric, "cascadian" black metal band that has only released one demo and this self-titled album. When I first heard the opening track I wasn't overly impressed, but then the second (and final) track came along and blew me away. Not that the first song is bad, it just took me a few listens to get it, while song 2 was love at first listen. The band is probably some flavor of anarchist, and they're from Santa Cruz (where I went to school), so that's something! I'm probably going to see them play in a few days with Ashdautas and maybe again later this month with Altar of Plagues.

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Skarp - Requiem

Artist: Skarp
Album: Requiem
Genre: Blackout Grind
Year: 2005
Origin: USA (Seattle)

Blackout grind? Yeah, it's a made-up subgenre, but I think it sounds cool and gives a hint of the band's atmosphere. Skarp takes a crusty punk song structure and drops the bottom out with mammoth heaviness you won't believe. The female vocalist is "singing like I'm from Sweden," with fitting harshness for a grind act. As you can see from the album cover this release has a somewhat silly theme of suicide, making this kind of like the punk equivalent of DSBM, though of course there are the usual anarchist lyrical themes as well.

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Totalt Jävla Mörker - Totalt Jävla Mörker

Artist: Totalt Jävla Mörker
Album: Totalt Jävla Mörker
Genre: Crust punk
Year: 2006
Origin: Sweden

This here's some of the heaviest, most refreshing crust punk I've heard in a long while. Totalt Jävla Mörker are from Sweden (of course), and the lyrics are all in their native tongue, along with the band name: Total Fucking Darkness. From what I understand, the band's newest album is slowed down a bit, but this self-titled release is lightning fast, crushingly metallic punk in the best Swedish tradition. I would definitely recommend this for anyone who enjoys Martyröd or Wolfpack/Wolfbrigade.

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Beyond Decay - Dropping the Bomb

Artist: Beyond Decay
Album: Dropping the Bomb
Genre: Skacore
Year: 2008
Origin: USA

Beyond Decay play a mix of ska, reggae and hardcore, with rap thrown in on a song or two, which comes from the now-worldwide "crack rock steady" scene. I come across a fair amount of this style on the Internet these days, but this is an album that is executed much better than most (see No Cops For Miles as another very good, though less creative, example). Yes, the album cover is larger than my review, but it does look cool doesn't it?

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Citizen Fish & AOS3 split

Artist: Citizen Fish & AOS3
Album: TV Dinner/Conspiracy split 7"
Genre: Ska Punk
Year: 1992
Origin: UK

Citizen Fish is the ska offshoot of the Subhumans (UK), and after seeing them play 3 times, I think they are pretty cool dudes. It's kind of amazing how many songs they have about tv rotting our brains. AOS3 is a psychedelic punk band who really rock on their one track from this split; I would really like to hear their full-length albums. They take their name from Augustus Owsley Stanley III, a prominent Dead-head and the maker of much of San Francisco's LSD back in yesteryear. This is a short recording, but if you like punk and psychedelic rock you should definitely try this out.

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happy 2010!!!

Iskra - Bureval

Artist: Iskra
Album: Bureval
Genre: RABM
Year: 2009
Origin: Canada

Iskra is a Canadian crust band that has leaned heavily black metal in the past, and is apparently focusing on the black metal aspect of their music even more in this recent release. The band takes its name from a Soviet newspaper, and is often brought up when people discuss the Red and/or Anarchist Black Metal scene. This album is just as furious and thrashy as the self-titled album, but I think I like this new one better, particularly since this drumming and a few of the riffs would fit in with any pvre kvlt Norwegian black metal band.

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La Plebe - ¡Hasta La Muerte!

Artist: La Plebe
Album: ¡Hasta La Muerte!
Genre: Punk
Year: 2007
Origin: USA

La Plebe is a (primarily) Spanish-language punk band from San Francisco, who I only recently discovered when they opened for Star Fucking Hipsters, and played a very memorable set. They play punk music that is heavily infused with trumpet and trombone, but it is not ska at all, just good old fashioned punk rock with prominent horns. In fact I would compare it more with banda/mariachi style music, though really I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to Mexican music, and I enjoy this way more than the "traditional" Mexican music I've heard on the radio. The name means something like "the proletariat", I think, and the music is certainly political. The song Plebe por Vida is really fun, and I remember it being great at the concert as well.

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Punch - Punch

Artist: Punch
Album: Punch
Genre: Hardcore / Thrash Punk
Year: 2009
Origin: USA

Punch is a powerviolence/thrashcore/very-fast-punk band from my local metropolis, San Francisco. The female vocalist is extremely fierce, which accompanies the band's blistering speed and heaviness perfectly. The lyrics are of course quite important to the band, with vegan and feminist ideologies featured prominently in those that I read. I only came across this, along with the band's only previous release, the Eyeless EP, very recently, but I think this is definitely a promising young group.

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Anti-Flag / Bouncing Souls split

Artist: Anti-Flag / Bouncing Souls
Album: split
Genre: Punk
Year: 2002
Origin: USA

It's Blog Action Day! I'm supposed to talk about climate change. So, ride your bike or walk somewhere today. And don't eat any meat today - the meat industry is one of largest human-created sources of carbon emissions. This shit matters! A small rise in sea-level from melting glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica will be devastating to the people in a poor, sea-level area like Bangladesh. Lives are at stake.

And here's a very nice ep from one of the greatest, most unashamedly political punk bands I know. And the Bouncing Souls side is ok. I will forgive Anti-Flag just about anything they do musically nowadays because this older material is so damn great. This release marked almost ten years of awesome, unmistakably unique punk albums from the band.

I should also mention that each band does a cover of the other on this split: The Bouncing Souls play Anti-Flag's "That's Youth" and Anti-Flag does The Bouncing Souls' "Freaks, Nerds, and Romantics". "Ever Fallen In Love" is also a cover of the original by the Buzzcocks and "We're Coming Back" was originally by Cock Sparrer (lots o' cocks here I guess).

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Fall of Efrafa - Owsla

Artist: Fall of Efrafa
Album: Owsla
Genre: Neocrust
Year: 2006
Origin: UK

Fall of Efrafa are a sludge/crust/post-metal band from Brighton. Apparently they are a concept-band about the mythology in the novel “Watership Down” By Richard Adams (which I haven't read). Anyway, the songs on this, their debut album, are epic and crushing in all the right ways, starting out with a simple and dark cello intro and building their marching army of sound as they head to the crash against rocks that is the self-titled final track. I also have the second album, and I guess the third is out now so I would love to hear it; I wonder, will they disband after the trilogy, or just let the 'concept-band' idea fade away.

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Kakistocracy - Cast Aside Your Chains and Dance

Artist: Kakistocracy
Album: Cast Aside Your Chains and Dance
Genre: Crust Punk
Year: 2004
Origin: USA

kakistocracy n. - "Government by the least qualified." As you would expect with a name like that, the band plays anarchist punk with crust heaviness and dual-vocal technique. They come from the South of the US, which seems to give them the motivation to kick even more ass than their Northern counterparts.

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The Broadways - Broken Star

Artist: The Broadways
Album: Broken Star
Genre: Punk Rock
Year: 1998
Origin: USA

I think this is what happens when sociology students form a band at university (...though I'm just guessing about the Broadways). The album features musically upbeat punk rock with serious intellectual (but still all punk-angry!) lyrics. I first looked into this band when I saw they had a song about Jonathan Kozol (read Amazing Grace, it's a very powerful account of the terrible inequalities in US schools and communities). It's an enjoyable album sort of along the lines of Propagandhi and Good Riddance.

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The 241ers - Murderers

Artist: The 241ers
Album: Murderers
Genre: Folk Punk
Year: 2008
Origin: USA

The mysteriously named 241ers (some New York thing I guess?) were formed from members of the Stockyard Stoics among other underground punk groups, which is probably what first got my interest. They play acoustic folk-punk though, with the angry-drunk vocal stylings and anarchist lyrics that make the genre work for me.

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Conflict - There's No Power Without Control

Artist: Conflict
Album: There's No Power Without Control
Genre: Anarcho-punk
Year: 2003
Origin: UK

This is the comeback album from British anarcho-punks Conflict after 10 years of hiatus - which might have something to do with apparently being banned from performing in the UK after inciting a riot. This album is heavier and features better production than their old work, and it's catchy enough that I find myself singing it out of the blue every once in a while. The dual male-female vocals complement each other very well when present, and Conflict's favorite lyrical themes of anarchism, police abuse and animal rights make a strong appearance. There's also a pretty sweet ska beat on The Hidden Hand. Also, I've gotta say that is one of the coolest album covers I have ever seen.

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A.P.P.L.E. - Plutocracy = Tyranny & Exploitation

Artist: A.P.P.L.E.
Album: Plutocracy = Tyranny & Exploitation
Genre: Punk
Year: 1988
Origin: USA

A.P.P.L.E. helped define Peace Punk by merging elements of British anarcho-punk, a la Crass, and 1960s San Francisco rock, Jefferson Airplane-style. The result is quite different from both influences, I think, but very enjoyable. The lyrics have that punk kick (and gratuitous profanity), with the 1960s influence giving them more of a peace-and-love message than most anarcho-punks. This album incorporates a few (very good) songs from an earlier ep, A Sensitive Fascist is Very Rare.

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P.O.S. - Audition

Artist: P.O.S.
Album: Audition
Genre: Hip-Hop
Year: 2006
Origin: USA

P.O.S. is a rapper from Minneapolis. He started out his music in a punk band, and the influence can still be heard, but now he makes intelligent but angry underground hip-hop. The main thing that stands out is that his beats are sometimes crafted from chugging metal guitars (and is that double-bass I hear?). He's also a part of the Minneapolis-based Doomtree collective, which I also recommend to hip-hop fans. This was requested, but I have definitely been listening to (and posting) a lot of hip-hop recently; five years ago I never would have guessed!

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